Uniting Communities for Justice

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Andrea Thomas

Andrea Thomas understands the power of a dollar. She understood it when she came into Ottawa ACORN’s free tax prep site, hoping to save a couple bucks on the cost of her return and she understands what a couple extra dollars an hour would mean to low wage workers fighting for a municipal living wage policy.

That’s the kind of leader Andrea is. A community leader from Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood who has been active in campaigns for fair housing and tenants rights, a living wage policy for Ottawa and taken part in countless community meetings.

As a mother of three, it hasn’t always been easy for Andrea to stay active in her local organization. She says she’s driven by “knowing that through ACORN I can help my neighbours”, whether its working to get their landlord to do repairs or arranging transportation to City Hall for a meeting - and her neighbourhs know they can count on Andrea.

When asked what she wanted Ottawa ACORN to work on in the last half of 2010, she replied “I hope that we win our living wage campaign, because its something working families desperately need”. Adding that “Ottawa need to understand that ACORN members are taking responsibility for our neighbourhoods, we know no one is going to fix that, we can only do that by organizing.”